Cedar Key Small Boat Meet November 2K25 Part 1 of 2 . . . .

[Charles Brennan]

LAND:

Took Short Ribs over to Atsena Otie Key for the November Cedar Key Small Boat Meet, to temporarily escape the drudgery of sanding, sanding, sanding, on a SCAMP.
Parked off all by my lonesome, since I wasn't sure how some of these Sailing Purists felt, about power boats beaching in their midst. 
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Brought a sandwich with me for lunch.
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Livin' The Life!! 

(Best Sesame Street Voice)
♫ "One of these things is not like the others" . . . . . .  ♫ 
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Suitably fortified, I went wandering, to observe the ritual of Old Salts critiquing everyone's vessels, but their own.
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Check how flat the water is; you know it's calm, when nobody even bothers to furl their sails.

Rob Hazard and his Coquina.
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I've shown several of these boats before, but it was a different feel for me, this year.
The boats haven't changed; but I have.
I see them now with far different eyes, than when I was sailing the Classic-Plastic Windrose 18, Urchin.
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Far more appreciation for the cutting, planing, shaping, sanding, fitting, gluing, paint, varnish, and all the work behind them, that they represent.
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I was almost (but not quite!) filled with Humility and people who know me, will tell you: I do not do Humble, well. 

Plans were for a 25 footer, that was scaled down to 12½ feet.
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So technically, is that now a model sailboat? 

A Swallow, a kit boat from England.
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BTW, notice there's not a cloud in the sky? 

And her proud owner.
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Another alumnus from last May, was this Puddle Duck Racer.
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On the left side of that hatch is a 50A/hr LFP battery (what the industry is calling LiFePO4 batteries, these days) with a spare LFP (not shown) on the starboard side, for balance.
He regards it as having one battery to get him Out and one battery to get him Back.
Asked him about the trolling motor performance and was slightly dismayed    to learn he had recently upgraded from a 36 lb thrust motor to a 48 lb thrust motor to counter strong winds in the Bay, on a lighter boat than a SCAMP.
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Made a mental note to re-check my trolling motor arithmetic when I got back home, although I still believe:
If you have strong winds in the Bay, why are you fooling around with a trolling motor?!? 

Glen (with his back to us) admiring all the gaff-rigged boats.
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Including (as he delights in telling you) his own Crotch Island Pinkie.
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Pam here, claimed she was the official on-water photographer for the CKSBM. 
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Guess that made me the official on-land photographer. 

This was some kind of manufactured dink, that a guy had just added a sail rig to, after rowing and motoring it for several years.
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His roller furling line looked to my eye like fishing line, but it seems to be holding up.
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This guy showed up in a Bolger . . . .  something;    everybody there had a different opinion of what kind of Bolger design it was.
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Probably moot, after the owner described all the many modifications he had made, including converting it to twin bilge keels, to reduce draft.

I was struck by the built-in bow ladder.
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Not something you see every day.
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Scroll up and down real quick and it will look like a video!!
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You just tried it, didn't you?!? 

Apparently, most Bolger designs require 5 - 7 Old Salts to critique, compared to the usual 2 or 3 Old Salts, for regular boats.
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Some nicely built kayaks; never found the owners.
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Is he going to make it out of this Wayfarer OK, or fall on his face?!? 
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Success! 
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I was struck by his mast head float; more proof that on small boats, everything does double-duty.
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A John Welsford design: Saturday Night Special.
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Cockpit.
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I liked the rub rail detail (bottom left of pic).

Multi-part down haul, necessary for a balanced lug rig if you expect to be able to point in that thing.
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A couple of Windrider 17's came blasting in, quite a feat for the light winds, that day.
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And now that everyone was gathered and there were actually some ripples on the water, they started gearing up for the On-Water Parade covered in Part Two.

Charles Brennan

[Noemi - Ensenada 20]

Swallow, as in "Swallows and Amazons"?

[Charles Brennan]

Noemi, It is a kit boat from England, where several sailboats and sailboat manufacturers have co-opted the name, including Swallow Yachts which makes several boats in their Bayraider series, although none of them are this particular boat. Any resemblance to the series of novels by Arthur Ransome, is entirely coincidental.

Hope this clarifies,
Charles Brennan

[Doug SC]

Swallow, as in "Swallows and Amazons"?

I believe the real Swallow didn't have a centerboard or daggerboard so windward wasn't its best point of sail. At least one company did a close replica with one of these keels installed. If I recall right, I saw this stated on a video at Small Craft Tasmania.

[Captain Kidd]

Great pictures and lovely boats! Hard to say, which would be my favorite, but I sure like that Coquina.